The Union of Youth

This book represents the first attempt to analyze the development of the St. Petersburg avant-garde between 1910 and 1914, with special reference to the art society, The Union of Youth (Soyuz Molodyozhi). This group of artists played a fundamental role in the establishment of an artistic ambience particular to Petersburg. This ambience is shown to involve an approach that was characterized by its retention of "idealistic" and "realistic" symbolism within a variety of modern styles.